And now he realized he did. And he could.

But he had to save her life first.

Chapter 16.

There were sounds, sickening sounds. Grunts of pain accompanied each one.

Kara opened her eyes and tried to bring the room into focus. Her head was spinning, and so was the room around her. But it slowed, and she found she was lying on her back on a floor, her legs inside the bathroom, her upper body in the motel room. Blinking, she lifted her head, managed to roll onto her side, though the motion brought pain. And then she saw where the sounds were coming from. The man held a woman by the front of her blouse with one fist, and pounded her face repeatedly with the other. He was swearing at her.

He would kill her.

Kara pushed up with her hands, managed to get up onto her knees but no further. "Stop. Stop it, you're killing her."

He stopped pounding and swung his gaze her way. Kara didn't look back. She couldn't; her eyes were glued to the woman's battered face. She looked as if she'd lost a battle with a meat grinder. Eyes swollen shut, lips split. Blood ran from her nose all the way to her chin and dripped from it onto her blouse. Her neck seemed like rubber. She wasn't holding her head up, and Kara wasn't sure if she was conscious.

The man released his grip on the woman's blouse, and she slumped to the floor. Then he turned and strode across the room to Kara. "You keep your mouth shut, bitch." He kicked her, his foot landing hard in her side. She collapsed flat on the floor, then curled around herself, hugging her middle. God, it hurt.

"You know what you've done, you and your do-gooder family? Huh, you know what you've done to me?"

"It wasn't about you," she whispered. "It was about Ty."

"The kid was fine. You should've kept your nose out of it! I'd have let him go and everything would've been all right. You're the one who screwed that up. I wasn't gonna hurt anyone, but now-"

"Liar."

The tortured whisper came from the other woman, though she didn't move when she spoke. "You were gonna kill him."

"What's-a matter, Ang, you haven't had enough yet?" He started toward her again, and again Kara pushed herself upright. She looked around, spotted a half empty soft drink bottle sitting within reach, grabbed it by the neck and smashed the bottom against the stand. She held the jagged edged remnants as he whirled, shock in his eyes. "She's had enough," Kara whispered. "Leave her alone." Gripping the table with her free hand, she hauled herself to her feet.

"Guess you haven't, though, have you?" he asked.

"You ever beat up on anyone besides women, Vinnie?" she asked. "You kidnap children and pound on women. You're a real man, aren't you?"

"Damn straight I am. And you know what you are? You're a dead woman." He came closer. She saw Angela moving, thought at first she was going to try to help her.

She had a small case, like a square compact, in her hands. Kara didn't know where she'd gotten it. But as she flipped it open, a little white powder spilled out onto the floor, onto her blouse, sticking to the blood there.

Kara frowned. "What is that? What are you doing?"

Vinnie turned, saw the woman and rolled his eyes. "Let her alone. That's what she does." He smiled at the woman. "Isn't it, Angie? Huh? That stuff might help take the edge off the pain, baby, but don't you worry. It won't last long, and I got a lot of anger to work off yet."

The woman said nothing. Instead she picked up a small straw, held it to her nose and closed off the other nostril. She sucked some of the powder into her nose, despite that it was probably broken.

"Don't," Kara said. "Angela, stop it. Think about Tyler."

Angela looked up, peering through eyes that barely opened at all. "I am," she said. Then she backed into a corner with her little gold case and drew her knees to her chest.

Vinnie turned his back on her, and reached for Kara. "Let's go, sweet cheeks. We need to move. Thanks to your heroics, you're my hostage now. You and the crack whore over there, though I doubt I could bargain my way out of the parking lot with her."

He hauled Kara to her feet, tugged her toward the door, then turned toward Angela. "Angie, can you walk?"

Angela didn't lift her head. She was still busy with her straw.

"Hell, you're not going anywhere, are you, honey?" He gripped Kara's upper arm. "Come on."

"Where? Where are you taking me?" Kara was terrified of leaving there. There, at least Jim and the police and her family would know where to look for her. Anywhere else, God, they might never find her.

"To the car," Vinnie said. He opened the motel room door and dragged her across the parking lot. Keeping one hand over her mouth, he yanked out a key ring and pressed a button on it. His trunk popped open.

Kara's blood turned to ice. She didn't have time to be afraid long, because he looked around, then shoved her into the trunk and slammed it shut. She thought some of the people standing in the parking lot must have seen. They had to have seen. She pounded on the trunk, kicked it. But within an instant the car was squealing into motion, turning, and her body rolled and slammed against the sides. It stopped abruptly. She banged into the front. Seconds later the trunk opened again, and Angela was dropped in beside her. The sun glinted from the little gold case she clutched in her hand.

Then the trunk slammed shut, and the car jerked into motion again, slamming Angela and Kara against each other.

Once they got underway, Kara wasn't banged around so much anymore. She put her hands on Angela, finding her shoulders, rolling her over onto her back. "Ang?" she whispered. She shook her a little. "Ang, come on. We need each other right now. Tyler needs us. We have to help each other get through this."

There was no response.

Frowning and feeling panicky, Kara felt near Angela's hands for that gold case. She found it, held it upright, feeling for the lid. Then she flipped it open and touched the inside. But there was no more powder in the case. Angela had inhaled it all.

Kara didn't know a lot about cocaine. But she was pretty sure that was way too much. She dropped the case, pressed her hand to Angela's cheek. "Angela?" And when there was still no response, she pressed her fingers to the woman's throat and then her wrist and then she put her ear to her chest to listen.

But there was nothing to hear.

Angela was dead.

Jim was speeding toward the motel when another car came careening from that direction, way past the speed limit. He hit his brakes and scrambled for the note Selene had given him.

The car matched the one he'd seen and the plates matched as well.

He pressed the pedal to the floor in pursuit, and it was only when he passed the swarm of screaming black-and-whites that he thought to reach for his cell phone and call in the information.

Chief Wheatly picked up.

"Chief, it's Corona. The suspect vehicle is a dark blue Ford, Illinois plates, Henry, Bravo, 732 Charlie, currently heading south on Cold Springs Road. I'm in pursuit."

"Does he have the boy with him?"

"No. No, Tyler is safe. But he has Kara Brand."

"How the hell...Is she in the car?"

"I didn't see her." His heart turned cold at the implication of that. Vinnie might very well have left her behind, and if he had...he wouldn't have left her alive.

An emptiness yawned in his chest like none he'd ever felt before. Wrong, he thought. He'd felt it once. Four years ago, while he'd paced outside a Chicago emergency room waiting to learn whether his son would live or die.

God, he couldn't believe how much Kara meant to him. How could he not have known? "Denial," he muttered. "Pure self-delusion."

"What's that, Corona?" Wheatly asked.

"Nothing. Just redirect the troops and I'll keep you posted as to where he's heading."

"Already done. I'm sending a separate team to the motel. We'll let you know what we find."

God, he thought desperately, please don't let it be what he most feared. Don't let it be Kara's lifeless body.

The Ford turned off the well-traveled route and onto a side road. "Damn," Jim said into the telephone. "He's onto me. He's turning left onto-" he scanned the roadside for a sign, spotted one half concealed by a tree limb "-Hawthorn Road. Sign's barely visible."

"Got it. I'll advise dispatch. Better stay on the line."

"Will do."

He kept the line open but set the phone down, better to maneuver the car. Vinnie was driving wildly, fishtailing around corners and throwing up dust. The road wound and twisted. A tinny voice came from his phone and he picked it up again. "Sorry, I missed that. Say again."

"Be advised, Corona, that road heads into rough country."

"I can see that. Wait, he's turning again. Hell, this time it's a right onto a dirt road. No street sign." He scanned the horizon for a landmark. "There's a broken-down old barn a quarter mile from the turn."

"Got it."

Jim stayed on the car, and when it turned again, he thought Vinnie might flip it right over, but he managed to hold it. Jim took the turn nearly as quickly, the pickup rocking onto two wheels.

When he got it under control, he grabbed the phone again. "He turned again, Chief. This time it's barely a dirt track."

He listened for the chief's reply, but there was nothing.

"Chief?" Jim pulled the phone away from his ear and examined its face. The words No Signal glowed in green from the panel. Hell. He'd lost the signal. He had no way to direct the cavalry in. Looked as if he was going to have to do this himself.

He opened his glove compartment, took out his sidearm and knew without checking that it was loaded and ready.

Kara felt around inside the trunk, whenever her body stopped bouncing off the sides long enough, searching for a latch. Didn't some cars have trunk-release buttons inside the trunks to prevent someone getting trapped?

Hell, if a guy like this had one on his car, he'd probably have had it removed.

The roads were getting bumpier, the turns sharper, and her body was being pummeled as if she were riding inside a paint shaker. The beating she took was nearly as bad as the one Vinnie had delivered. And she hurt so much she began to wonder if she was going to survive this.

She closed her eyes. "Tyler survived it. That's what counts." She consoled herself with the image of Tyler safe in his father's arms. Tyler having a long and happy life.

They hit another bump and Angela's body was jostled even closer against her. Kara pushed it away, wincing at how cool it felt now. It was unnatural. A reminder that she lay there beside death and might soon join Angela in its cold embrace.

The car came to a skidding halt. The trunk popped open, clouds of dust rising around it.

Kara didn't wait to see what would happen next. She sprang out of the trunk and hit the ground running despite that every part of her hurt with every footfall. Vinnie must have hit the trunk release from inside the car, she thought, her mind racing. She'd glimpsed him hurrying around the car when she'd landed, but she hadn't looked. She'd just run.

He was chasing her. She heard his pursuit without looking, felt him close to her and veered off the road into the woods. She couldn't hope to outrun the man, as battered as she was. Her only chance was to lose him in the forest.

Jim's truck skidded to a halt behind Vinnie's car, which stood cockeyed on the dirt road, the driver's door and the trunk standing open. He dived from his truck, gun in his hand, every instinct alert as he went to the car, circling it, peering inside. No one. Then he moved around behind it, wary that the open trunk could be hiding Vinnie. The bastard could be aiming a weapon at him even now. He took a quick peek around the open trunk, ducking back instantly.

But what he'd glimpsed in that darting glance made his blood run cold. There was a woman in the trunk lying very still.

No sign of Vinnie.

He moved around again, fully this time, his heart in his throat, praying he wasn't about to find Kara's broken body.

Angela lay there, still and pale. White powder clung to her nostrils and caked in the blood beneath her nose. Her face was swollen from what had to have been a terrible beating.

He didn't need to check her vitals to know she was dead. But he went through the motions anyway.

She was dead. The mother of his child. And though she'd never been a mother to Tyler, he thought maybe she'd tried to be there at the end. She must have tried, just as Selene said she had. And Vinnie had beaten the hell out of her for it.

He closed his eyes and shook off the sadness and regret of a life so thoroughly wasted-except it hadn't been a total waste, had it? She'd given him a beautiful son.

"Thank you for that, Ang. Thank you for giving me Tyler. And for giving him back to me today." It surprised him that his throat went tight on those words. He hoped she was at peace somewhere, somehow.

Jim drew himself up, told himself to focus. Then he looked at the dirt around the car and spotted footprints. Two sets led off into the woods. Two sets.

That had to mean Kara was still alive. "Thank God," he whispered. "Thank God almighty." He checked the cell. There was still no signal, but he took it with him all the same as he hiked into the woods in search of the woman he loved.

Kara ran deeper into the woods, zigging and zagging, doubling back and looping around until she didn't even know where she was. Vinnie was still chasing her, but she thought she'd managed to get far enough ahead so he couldn't see her. So she slowed her pace, walking carefully, hoping to make it more difficult for him to hear her, as well.

God, if only it would get dark. The sun was still in the sky, lower than before but not close to setting. Not just yet. She had to keep moving, get away from him, make sure he couldn't hear or see her and then find a place to hide. It was her only chance.

Every part of her ached. Her ribs most of all. She was certain now that Vinnie had broken them when he'd kicked her.

She thought about her family, about how losing her would devastate them. About how much she would regret not being able to see the twins grow up or her mother find love again or Selene figure out where her life was leading her. She had to stay alive. She had to.

Those thoughts kept her going despite the pain and the way her body cried out for rest, for a break. She crept as quietly as she could through the undergrowth, the thickening woods. She smelled pine and decaying leaves and rich soil. Birds chirped, took flight now and then when she made an inadvertent sound. A squirrel chattered. She wasn't sure, but she thought the sounds of Vinnie's pursuit were growing fainter.

She thought about Jim. About Tyler. Jimmy didn't love her-she'd figured that out early on. But he did like her. She didn't think he'd been faking his desire for her. And she thought he had fully intended to marry her. Maybe it was only because he knew how badly his son needed a mother. But that was a compliment to her, wasn't it? That Jimmy had chosen her, out of all the women a man like him could have for the asking, to be the one in his son's life. It was an honor. And while Jimmy may not love her, she knew Tyler did. He adored her as much as she adored him. It could be a good life, being Jimmy Corona's wife. Being Tyler's mother. It would be a good life.

If Jim still wanted it. And if she could survive long enough to claim it.

She kept going, picking her way, striving not to make a sound as she moved ever deeper into the woods. It was working, she knew it was. She hadn't heard a sound from her pursuer in a long while. Maybe she'd lost him. Maybe he'd given up and gone back to his car. Maybe she could begin to relax now.

She needed to get her bearings, figure out where she was and then find a safe place to stay until after dark. Once the sun went down-and it would only be a couple of hours now-she would make her way out, back to civilization. But she'd have to get a solid idea which way to move now, while it was still light enough to see.

She chose a small tree-lined rise and climbed it, pulling herself along, still trying to be as quiet as possible. When she got to the top, she found a spot where she could see between the trees and skimmed the horizon in search of rooftops or chimneys or the snakelike cut of a road through the forest.

She was still searching when the distinct sound of a gun being cocked near her ear, made her go ice-cold and still as stone.

"You've really pissed me off, you know that, Kara Brand?"